Legal Aid Reform And Family Mediation Services

EDM number 1475 in 2006-07, proposed by David Drew on 15/05/2007.

That this House welcomes the recent National Audit Office (NAO) report, Legal Aid and Mediation for People involved in Family Breakdown, which recognises that, compared to settlement through the courts, resolving family disputes through mediation is not only quicker and less acrimonious, but also cheaper, and recommends the expansion of family mediation services and referral of divorcing couples to mediation, noting that family mediation services are well-distributed throughout England and Wales; regrets that the Legal Services Commission (LSC) appears not to have taken account of this report, basing its proposed new funding for mediation on current levels of take-up; notes with concern that unless the LSC fulfils the obligation placed on it by its Funding Code to ensure that divorcing couples are referred to mediation many family mediation services will close under the proposed new funding regime; and urges the Government to press the LSC to carry out this obligation, to revise its new funding proposals in the light of the NAO report and to implement fully the recommendations of that report.

This motion has been signed by a total of 97 MPs, 3 of these signatures have been withdrawn.